Another find at at GLOW ~ was a collection of suspended robots under the pier, EX-SE-08, Shieh Chieh Huang. Made from plastic bags, plastic bottles of various sizes, computer fans, portable dvd players - all combined with circuit boards and what looked like many power adapters for the larger pieces… these robots were buzzing and breathing (well the bags looked like inhaling and exhaling oxygen bags that come down in airplane emergencies?) and spinning about - while filled with glowing lights, black lights, and uv glowing liquids… It was mesmerizing to say the least, especially when i wandered back in around 5am in a bit of a haze… i ended up taking more video of these creatures than pictures, so check out the video below for an overview of them in action, and a few more pics as well on the next page!

The show stealer at GLOW yesterday was hands down, Usman Haque’s Primal Source. Ask anyone who went what the best thing they saw was and odds are they will say “that giant fountain projection thing”.

On so many levels, this was an incredible art installation ~ a GIANT screen of water that with rear projection, set up such that the dark night sky served as the perfect backdrop for the perfectly clear visualizations - but it’s not just about watching, the group interaction element was there too: a series of microphones against the fence encourage the audience to participate by screaming into them in order to directly alter the visualizations. It was the only piece that truly sucked everyone into it, and kept them there for ages. Kids of all ages were absolutely mesmerized. And yes, i admit, it was one of the first things i was drawn to, even from up at the park - and i went back multiple times in that 12 hour window… and there were ALWAYS crowds at the piece… even at 5am. See images of Usman Haque’s Primal Source from all angles on the next page ~ as well as a video to give you the full effect of how awesome this was to behold in person!

Sponsored Ads

Incase has done it again… waking me up to yet another giddiness inducing package. They always manage to put me in the best moods with their great packaging (from packaging of the product, to the silver penned notes to go with them!). I’m sure you’ve been seeing these new limited edition cases buzzing around the web all morning, but here’s an unboxing and some close up pics of my own. And for those just catching up…

Incase has teamed up once again with Arkitip Magazine, and this time they’ve pulled in one or my favorite artists, Craig Costello aka “KRINK” aka “KR”, the legendary creator of KRINK inks and markers and artist behind those awesome silver drippy mail boxes! So this new KRINK Sleeve is the first in the “Curate by Arkitip” series. First impression, was being smitten by the silver on black drippiness, so messy, yet so clean. Next thing to hit me… although it is an awesome art product, the quality is incredible, but then again what else would you expect from Incase? This would be such a fun case to carry into a formal meeting… if not just to see what the reactions are like! Anyhow, go see the many pics on the next page, as well as the video with behind the scenes on how this sleeve came to be.

p.s.
i know it sounds silly, but part of me is dying to spraypaint ‘NOTCOT’ on mine…

NOTCOT Note: This is the third in my series of Ultimate Accessories posts which have been sponsored by the new Infiniti G Sedan! As with any sponsored content ~ these posts are done - my way - my product choices, my content, and they help keep the site free!

These days, you really need to be prepared for any and everything. And no reason why those do it all lifesavers can’t look gorgeous too. I’ve been drawn to the Eton FR1000 since CES, where it made my Top 10 Cravings List. You never know when you might need a Self-Powered Hand-Crank AM/FM/NOAA Weather/2-Way GMRS Radio with Flashlight, Siren and Cell Phone Charger! Not only is it gorgeous… but check out some of the many features:
- 22 GMRS (General Mobile Radio System)/FRS (Family Radio System) channels
- 121 privacy codes (38 CTCSS / 83 DCS)
- AM/FM receiver
- VOX (Voice operated transmission)
- NOAA weather radio and NOAA weather alert
- Siren and Flashlight
- Can be powered from four different sources: Rechargeable Ni-MH battery, Dynamo crank alone, 4 “AA” batteries, AC Adapter (included)
- Cell-phone charging jack

For any camping trip, or just one in each car, this has definitely made my list of great gifts and emergency kits. I got my hands on one of the White Red Cross co-branded FR 1000s, so check out a full unboxing and up close shots of some of the details that show just how high the quality is! Also embedded the Eton product video for your viewing pleasure.

It’s noon on Friday, and this week has been so much design/dev/catch up ~ i somehow ended up staying up all night catching up on emails (i was a few hundred deep… now down to somewhere around 100! yay!), so about to crash, but wanted to first show you guys some exciting new fall launches coming from Belkin. I hope you don’t mind, but i’ll keep it brief, and give you lots of pics on the next page:

1. Fly Wire - this was one of the things i’ve been waiting for since CES, a super sleek simple way to mount a receiver to your flat panel TV, and have no wires showing when its wall mounted, while all your devices are connected elsewhere. Gorgeous design, awesome implementation!

2. Break Free - a great little magnetic break away jack for all our guitarists out there, or for those who trip on their cords!

3. Laptop Cool Strip - fun idea for getting your laptop some room to cool, while also having space to let cables not get crushed under the laptop.

Sponsored Ads

NOTCOT Note: This is the second in my series of Ultimate Accessories posts which have been sponsored by the new Infiniti G Sedan! As with any sponsored content ~ these posts are done - my way - my product choices, my content, and they help keep the site free!

The *new* Jawbone, the adorable “half the size of its predecessor” bluetooth headset with the same powerful noise assassin technology, and yves behar design… is taking LA by storm even more this week than ever before. We’ve written about this beauty before, but since as of July 1st, all Californians must legally use some kind of handsfree while driving - these have been flying off the shelves, and we gave in and updated the NOTCOT team with them as well. So far, they work incredibly as promised, and still have that incredible packaging and awesome design details in the whole opening experience… so see a full unboxing gallery on the next page!

The rumors (and guesses) have been flying around about Mimoco launching their 3rd series of Star Wars Mimobots, and we’re excited to have the exclusive to show you the first of this new series! So, here is Darth Sidious! How crazy are his hands? With all the lightning shooting out? Reminders of the rest of the series so far on the next page…

When at the Wall-E midnight showing on Thurs ~ walking out at nearly 3am, i felt like we were nearly venturing into the world of Wall-E as we lined up to feed the ticket in the machine to validate, then lined up in our cars again, sitting, idling, waiting to get out… and the other thing that stuck in my mind was ~ enough cross over Apple placement, Pixar? From the sound every time Wall-E had to reboot, to the ipod he played his movies on… and why was i SO drawn to Eve? And then i was reminded… Eve is a product of Jonathan Ives… Apple helped design the robots of the future… and remember the Automator icon? How cute is he? He looks like he might be Eve’s grandpa, they certainly have quite a few things in common ~ that glossy white skin, and that face looks like she could definitely have evolved from him! See many more images of them all on the next page ~ as well as some Eve icons for Adium.

Sponsored Ads

SPORE! SPORN [nsfw]! And all the madness that has flown around the internets over the launch of the Spore Creature Creator. Since the Spore folks asked us to make a creature for the Spore Vote site - no, i’m no Sporelebrity, just a mere More Spore if i ever get my creatures sorted out and sent in to them. On a side note, how funny are their Sporelebrities? You have the webby kids from Digg, Arrington, iJustine, Scoble, Veronica Belmont - and then tv actors like the OC guy, Alias guy, Sabrina the teenage witch, old saved by the bell guy… and stan lee and emeril… Yes yes, i know they have names, but just surveying the group made me laugh this lazy Saturday.

SO, back to the Spore Creatures ~ dan started challenging me to make “cute” ones that weren’t what nightmares were made of… and then creatures with “fewest vertebrae possible” (turns out that is 2)… and other silly tasks, so in trying out the high res picture taking and video capturing… check out a few of my silly creatures (and vid!) on the next page… i’ve also added the video of the f*ck slug, which is a great example of Spore Typography!

Incase always has the best packaging experiences… as much as i love their products, opening the press packs they send always leave me giddy all day. Today they sent over these new Incase iPod Touch Slider Cases - in the starburst like colors of Summer Rose, Rummer Red, and Summer Orange - these were wrapped in tissue paper, tucked with giant paint chip like info cards in black Incase envelopes, which fit perfectly on some padding in the gift box… and on top of that was a card with their motto when you opened the box: “A better experience through good design.” *swoon*. I love these guys… living up to a motto like that makes them a pleasure to interact with. The cases are great - they are incredibly thin but durable plastic - with my favorite soft touch rubberized coating! So take a peek at the unboxing pics and close ups on the next page… and keep an eye out for these to be available on their website! (Currently you can only find the black and white high gloss ipod touch slider cases)

On ridiculous, unexpected things that made me actually lol… my new Panasonic 42” plasma showed up yesterday, the amazon white glove guys set it up, took the box away, and left me with the bag of manuals, etc… and as i start setting things up, i’m flipping through what’s in there, and i see this boring looking technical page about “MAINTAINING THE SHINY PARTS”… and as you read on, it’s really quite sad? funny? i’m not sure, so i had to share it.

NOTICE: This unit has some shiny parts. Being shiny, these parts tend to show dust and fingerprints easily. Wiping these parts or rubbing them vigorously with a hard cloth may scratch their surfaces. When cleaning or otherwise maintaining these parts, use the cleaning cloth provided with the unit, and bear in mind the following points… you can click the image above to view larger… Is “Shiny Parts” now a technical term? How much fun did some guy have writing that?

And for your multilingual amusement, i’ve scanned the other languages on the next page!

So this engraving trend has been huge lately… grab a laser engraver and you can throw everything from moleskines to macbooks to…. well, you name it! Joe from EngraveYourTech and EngraveYourBook, sent over one of his creations, and it arrived while i was out of town, so by the time i got back i was so jetlagged and tired that when dan and i first looked at the moleskine, it took a second to remember that it was laser engraved. In fact first we were there touching it and looking at it up close arguing whether it was engraved or just silkscreened in this matte brownish color, since you could barely feel the indentation…

So we did the only thing we could do… get SUPER up close (200x) shots to see what was really going on… and here you can see, its clearly engraved enough just to scrape that black layer off… and then we even cut a tiny chunk out of the corner to see the colors underneath (you can also see pics of that, and slightly less upclose pics on the next page)… and if you still aren’t convinced, there is also a video on the next page of this exact pattern being engraved on a moleskine…

We were cleaning out more of the log cabin, and when we started poking through desk drawers, dan and i both laughed when out popped Steve Jobs on the cover of the August 5, 1985 issue of Fortune Magazine - and the headline read “The Fall Of Steve Jobs”… funny article in retrospect too (see images on the next page)…filled with great pop cultural references of the time “John Sculley, 46, president and chief executive, ruefully remarked that Apple’s moves were attracting as much attention as an episode of Dynasty.” There were also statements like “No players in the drama have explained publicly why Jobs came to grief. But several of them, promised anonymity, have revealed the essential details to Fortune.” ~ can you imagine if any apple insiders were so bold today? Ah, how times have changed since 1985… Equally worthwhile, the ATT ad that runs next to the article… and the “Picture Phones: New Spin On An Old Idea” article that sits next to “Droids For Sale: Star Wars’ George Lucas if pushing new technology”… suffice to say, this is a quality issue of Fortune, and a nice way to get some perspective on exactly how far we’ve come in the last 23 years… See the details on the next page!

It’s about time! The Jawbone has finally been redesigned to be less of a monstrosity on your face. Ok, so maybe i’m being a little harsh here, but i did fall in love with the Jawbone at first online sighting… but then i finally tried it in a store and was appalled at how massive it was on me… maybe my face just isn’t large enough? But now the new one is about half the size! And it no longer cancels noise… it now assassinates it, with its upgraded “noise assassination”. Rumor has it that you are also not to call this the “Jawbone 2” (so, watch out blogs that already did so)… since they are killing off the old one, so its more of a replacement product than a new option (not that you’d want the bigger one anyhow… although that one has longer talk time, but little one has more standby time). Oh, and this one also comes with a leather covered ear loop, and i hear you can headbang with it without the earloop and it stays on pretty well? Basically, i’ve woken up to many a good rumor about this one, and am now tempted to go hunt one down and try it! More pics on the next page as usual…

I had to tear myself away from spinning the newly announced Blackberry (9000) Bold around on their site… to get this post put together, and it wasn’t easy. It is so pretty - the rumors have been flying for weeks - we posted UI shots - the guys at Crackberry bought one early on ebay and reviewed the gorgeous UI (.org #10424) - so much anticipation… and now, official pics! I love the black/silver look (vs the curve) ~ and it looks like a leather/textured back ~ i still stand by my initial statement that it feels like what would happen if you mixed blackberry/iphone/psp… more pics on the next page!